gets the time to click it all into place.
They were energetic, determined and young, and their goal encompassed all those things when the
impressive academy graduate Mason Mount pinched the ball from Wilfred Ndidi on the edge of the
Leicester City box and drilled a finish past Kasper Schmeichel.
But after half-time the array of problems Lampard faces revealed themselves, one after another. His
midfield’s productivity began to wane, with Jorginho’s radar going haywire and Pedro playing like a slightly
drunk wasp, carrying a sting which he couldn’t quite remember how to use. Gaps creaked open through the
centre just like those which Manchester United exploited so ruthlessly a week ago.
Leicester took a foothold in the game and soon it was more, when Ndidi made up for his earlier error by
scoring a headed equaliser from a James Maddison corner.
Mason Mount celebrates scoring his first goal
for Chelsea (PA)By that point, 66 minutes in, Leicester were enjoying themselves, to the extent that Brendan Rodgers could
afford a grin a few moments later when Maddison somehow cleared the crossbar with a brilliant chance in
the Chelsea box.
Beside Rodgers on the touchline, Lampard let out another of his exasperated huffs. A man who has spent
most of his life playing football, he is quickly finding out that the game is a whole lot more stressful when
you can only watch.
Perhaps Chelsea’s decline was the natural response of a team who were stretched to their limits on a
midweek trip to Istanbul, both physically and emotionally. And certainly Leicester deserved credit for the
way they transformed themselves after the break; if anything they will leave Stamford Bridge frustrated that
Maddison and Jamie Vardy spurned chances, and that Youri Tielemans inexplicably ignored a simple
through-ball to Marc Albrighton in the final throes.